1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to sealing assemblies, and in particular to a magnetic sealing gasket for creating a seal between the door and cabinet of refrigerators, freezers, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many gaskets and seals have been developed over the years to establish a seal for closures such as refrigerator or household doors. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 3,487,581, issued to Ellingson, Jr., discloses an astragal for door closures that utilizes a pair of flexible strips with magnetic particles embedded therein. The flexible strips are connected to the astragal bar and are employed to effect a closure.
A magnet-containing seal for closures is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,248,159, issued to Hall. Hall discloses a refrigerator door seal for a double door refrigerator wherein a plurality of flexible magnetic strips are enclosed in plastic extrusions. These are adapted to abut when the doors are in their closed position. Each extrusion has a separate magnetic strip that cooperates with the metal cabinet when the doors are closed.
Another seal for refrigerators is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,957, issued to Frehse. Frehse discloses a seal similar to Hall wherein flexible strips containing magnetic particles are enclosed within plastic extrusions to provide a substantially airtight thermally effective seal between the door and the metal cabinet of the refrigerator.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,077,644, issued to Kesling, discloses a refrigerator door seal for a double door refrigerator wherein flexible strips containing magnetic particles are enclosed in plastic extrusions.
A flexible permanent magnetic material that may be employed for numerous purposes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,959,832, issued to Baermann. One such use is with a closure that uses flexible strips formed of extruded plastic material having magnetic particles embedded throughout its entire mass. The fields in the strips are arranged to provide continual attraction when the closure is secured.
Some refrigerator door seals allow the accumulation of condensate on the door seal and the surfaces adjacent the door seal. To solve this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 3,055,193, issued to Smith, incorporates a strip heater in the door seal for keeping the door seal heated at all times to prevent the accumulation of condensate on the seal. The strip heater also prevents accumulation of moisture on the door and cabinet surfaces adjacent the door seal.
Another typical arrangement with household refrigerators is to supply the periphery of the refrigerator and freezer doors with a strip magnet encased within a rubber or other elastomeric shell. When the doors are closed, the strip magnet forms a seal with the metallic skin of the metal cabinet. This arrangement consistently resulted in the accumulation of condensate. To relieve this problem, some manufacturers included a heater behind the metal skin to maintain the skin at a sufficiently high temperature to reduce the accumulation of condensate.
The primary disadvantages of including the heating elements within the strip magnet or refrigerator cabinet are increased production costs and less efficient refrigerators. Also, some seals in the art that didn't utilize the strip heater were made of material susceptible to corrosion and sometimes needed repaired or replaced due to the effects of condensation.